Barnier, the EU negotiator on Brexit, will travel to London on Friday to continue negotiations

Reuters, Brussels / London, 27 November – EU key representative for Brexit negotiations, Michel Barnier, will travel to London on Friday evening to make a final effort on the Brexit trade deal. The two sides are trying to resolve the fisheries AND competition policy.

At the moment there are only five weeks left before Britain officially withdraws from the European Union.

After a member of the Barnier team tested positive for the new corona virus last week, face-to-face negotiations were forced to suspend and are now about to resume.

Barnier said: “According to Belgian law, my team and I have already left the quarantine period. We can continue the negotiations face to face … tonight we will go to London to continue the negotiations.”

A source told Reuters that Barnier said at a closed-door meeting of diplomats in Brussels that he couldn’t say if he could reach a new trade deal with Britain in time.

Talks are still stalled on three main issues, namely, ensuring fair competition, supervision and fishing, but so far neither side has shown willingness to make enough concessions to get any breakthroughs.

A senior EU diplomat told Reuters that Barnier said there were still differences on these three most controversial issues.

The diplomat also said that, judging from Barnier’s speech, the talks “are not too optimistic”.

European Commission President Von der Lein said on Wednesday that although the tortuous Brexit negotiations have made “real progress”, the European Union is ready for a possible British Brexit without a new trade deal. (To end)